Here is the full interview with Boston College coach Mike Gambino yesterday. He was entertaining and informative.
Is the humidity down here a concern for you?
“I didn’t really notice it. You know, honestly we were in Georgia two weekends ago and the ACC tournament down in Carolina last weekend and the last week-and-a-half in Boston has been really hot. It was 93 (degrees) when we practiced last week. It’s not going to be a factor as long as our boys do a good job staying hydrated. If they don’t do a good job, if they are drinking soda instead of Gatorade and water, then it will be an issue, but we played a doubleheader two weeks ago to get us into this whole thing at Georgia Tech that was just like this, and for two games the guys did a great job.”
What is your impression of Tulane?
“They are a really good ballclub. They are solid, and I mean this as a compliment. They don’t have one guy that jumps out at you. It’s a solid lineup and a solid pitching staff. I don’t mean that as a knock on them. It’s a top to bottom really good baseball club. Their lineup can be scary 1 through 9. They’ve got three guys that can run the ball out of the park at any time. They’ve got two to three guys who can steal bags at any time. They are really balanced, and then with that staff, we are going to face a really good arm tomorrow, and they have quality guys coming out of the bullpen. You don’t know exactly what the combination is going to be, but you see that with the number of games they’ve won. And coach Pierce has won everywhere he has been and constantly gotten teams in the postseason. It’s a real quality team that’s very well coached, and we’re excited about that. That’s why everybody is talking about this being the toughest regional. It’s just four really good clubs that are coming together the same weekend.”
What prompted you to move Jason Dunn to the starting rotation?
“What happened was we had Florida State at our place and only played one game because some weather came in, so it was kind of the perfect time to make an adjustment. Our pitching coach came to me and said here’s what I’m thinking, what do you think? It was a great call by him. I said let’s go with it. We always believed he was really truly a starter. We had him in the back of the game at that point because we had three guys we thought could give us a chance to win (as starters) and then Justin would help us win two games every weekend. Starting the season we though him closing out two games every weekend was our best chance.”
He went nine innings in his last start. Can he go as long as needed against Tulane?
“We’re very cautious with our guys. You see the pitch counts. As long as needed, yes, but really, we don’t run our guys very high at all. We had one kid get to 120 this year and that was because the last batter was a 10-pitch at-bat. Justin finished the game at Georgia Tech when we needed him, and he was at 84 after the eighth. We had the bullpen moving out a little bit, and it was a hot day. I went to check with him, and he said, ‘sit them down, I got it.’ I said, all right, go get them, dude.”
What makes him so dominant?
“The first thing that would jump out at you is the fastball velocity, but I don’t think that’s what makes him dominant because early in his career when that velocity started coming, he was throwing it flat and getting knocked around. As he’s sort of learned how to pitch, he went to a four-pitch mix. He was a kid with a good arm as a freshman, and he can pitch now. That’s what makes him dominant. His pitchability. It’s electric stuff, but in the ACC, the SEC, there are a lot of guys with big arms. It’s big stuff with pitchability.
“And the thing about Justin beyond that is he’s such a high-character kid. He’s one of the kids you’ll ever be around. As good as you see him on the mound, he’s even better as a kid.”
How does going through the rigor of the ACC prepare you for tournament play?
“Every weekend is playoff baseball in the ACC and every weekend is playoff baseball in the SEC. Especially for us, we were playing great early and then scuffled in the middle, we’ve essentially been in playoff baseball for six weeks now. This ballpark is one of the best places to play college baseball in the country. This town, these fans here, it’s awesome, and our boys are excited to play in it. They’ve talked about how much they are excited to play in this ballpark and play in front of these fans. They’re great fans, but it’s not something to be in awe of because you see it a lot in the ACC. So they are excited about it, but they are not going to be in awe of it.”
You were picked last in the ACC. What allowed this team to exceed those expectations?
“We understand that. We knew we were going to be picked last going into the year and we sort of laughed at it. We knew that most people outside of us aren’t going to understand what we’re doing here, and the way we handle that is all we care about is us. We’ve got a clubhouse full of guys that care about each other, that believe in each other, that believe we have a chance to go to Omaha. As do the other 63 teams, but we don’t get ourselves concerned with what people outside of our clubhouse are saying. And honestly, part of the reason we scuffled early was all of a sudden people started saying we were good after about 25 games, and it shocked the guys and we started paying attention to what people were saying. Whether they are saying good things or bad things, we just worry about us and worry about what we’re doing.”
Is the humidity down here a concern for you?
“I didn’t really notice it. You know, honestly we were in Georgia two weekends ago and the ACC tournament down in Carolina last weekend and the last week-and-a-half in Boston has been really hot. It was 93 (degrees) when we practiced last week. It’s not going to be a factor as long as our boys do a good job staying hydrated. If they don’t do a good job, if they are drinking soda instead of Gatorade and water, then it will be an issue, but we played a doubleheader two weeks ago to get us into this whole thing at Georgia Tech that was just like this, and for two games the guys did a great job.”
What is your impression of Tulane?
“They are a really good ballclub. They are solid, and I mean this as a compliment. They don’t have one guy that jumps out at you. It’s a solid lineup and a solid pitching staff. I don’t mean that as a knock on them. It’s a top to bottom really good baseball club. Their lineup can be scary 1 through 9. They’ve got three guys that can run the ball out of the park at any time. They’ve got two to three guys who can steal bags at any time. They are really balanced, and then with that staff, we are going to face a really good arm tomorrow, and they have quality guys coming out of the bullpen. You don’t know exactly what the combination is going to be, but you see that with the number of games they’ve won. And coach Pierce has won everywhere he has been and constantly gotten teams in the postseason. It’s a real quality team that’s very well coached, and we’re excited about that. That’s why everybody is talking about this being the toughest regional. It’s just four really good clubs that are coming together the same weekend.”
What prompted you to move Jason Dunn to the starting rotation?
“What happened was we had Florida State at our place and only played one game because some weather came in, so it was kind of the perfect time to make an adjustment. Our pitching coach came to me and said here’s what I’m thinking, what do you think? It was a great call by him. I said let’s go with it. We always believed he was really truly a starter. We had him in the back of the game at that point because we had three guys we thought could give us a chance to win (as starters) and then Justin would help us win two games every weekend. Starting the season we though him closing out two games every weekend was our best chance.”
He went nine innings in his last start. Can he go as long as needed against Tulane?
“We’re very cautious with our guys. You see the pitch counts. As long as needed, yes, but really, we don’t run our guys very high at all. We had one kid get to 120 this year and that was because the last batter was a 10-pitch at-bat. Justin finished the game at Georgia Tech when we needed him, and he was at 84 after the eighth. We had the bullpen moving out a little bit, and it was a hot day. I went to check with him, and he said, ‘sit them down, I got it.’ I said, all right, go get them, dude.”
What makes him so dominant?
“The first thing that would jump out at you is the fastball velocity, but I don’t think that’s what makes him dominant because early in his career when that velocity started coming, he was throwing it flat and getting knocked around. As he’s sort of learned how to pitch, he went to a four-pitch mix. He was a kid with a good arm as a freshman, and he can pitch now. That’s what makes him dominant. His pitchability. It’s electric stuff, but in the ACC, the SEC, there are a lot of guys with big arms. It’s big stuff with pitchability.
“And the thing about Justin beyond that is he’s such a high-character kid. He’s one of the kids you’ll ever be around. As good as you see him on the mound, he’s even better as a kid.”
How does going through the rigor of the ACC prepare you for tournament play?
“Every weekend is playoff baseball in the ACC and every weekend is playoff baseball in the SEC. Especially for us, we were playing great early and then scuffled in the middle, we’ve essentially been in playoff baseball for six weeks now. This ballpark is one of the best places to play college baseball in the country. This town, these fans here, it’s awesome, and our boys are excited to play in it. They’ve talked about how much they are excited to play in this ballpark and play in front of these fans. They’re great fans, but it’s not something to be in awe of because you see it a lot in the ACC. So they are excited about it, but they are not going to be in awe of it.”
You were picked last in the ACC. What allowed this team to exceed those expectations?
“We understand that. We knew we were going to be picked last going into the year and we sort of laughed at it. We knew that most people outside of us aren’t going to understand what we’re doing here, and the way we handle that is all we care about is us. We’ve got a clubhouse full of guys that care about each other, that believe in each other, that believe we have a chance to go to Omaha. As do the other 63 teams, but we don’t get ourselves concerned with what people outside of our clubhouse are saying. And honestly, part of the reason we scuffled early was all of a sudden people started saying we were good after about 25 games, and it shocked the guys and we started paying attention to what people were saying. Whether they are saying good things or bad things, we just worry about us and worry about what we’re doing.”